With the notorious circumstances—dramatized in the movie Chinatown—around the diversion of the river’s water to Los Angeles, it is very good to see it returning to health.
L.A. mayor tours restored Lower Owens River
Antonio Villaraigosa touts the city's diverting water back to the waterway, which had been sucked dry by the aqueduct in 1913.
By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 14, 2008
INDEPENDENCE, CALIF. — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa toured the Lower Owens River by paddle-power Wednesday, leading half a dozen canoes and drift boats along a mile-long stretch of the rehabilitated waterway east of the High Sierra.
Under cloudy skies, local elected officials and environmentalists floated close behind Villaraigosa as he and a guide paddled their canoe through the tule-lined channel that began flowing again in 2006 as part of what is widely considered the most ambitious river restoration effort attempted in the West.
The 62-mile-long river was left nearly dry in 1913 when its water was redirected into the Los Angeles Aqueduct to help Los Angeles grow into a metropolis. The Department of Water and Power redirected some water back into the channel starting Dec. 6, 2006, and DWP General Manager and CEO David Nahai was among those floating on the river Wednesday.
